THE CSIRO is now regarded as “an employer of last resort” for researchers, says a scientist who once worked for the premier research organisation.

Trevor McDougall, one of the world’s leading oceanographers and his former CSIRO colleague Stuart Godfrey are worried about the effect of Federal Government spending cuts.

Prof McDougall said the CSIRO was becoming less like a research agency and more of an engineering consultancy.

“The days where CSIRO was seen as a national icon are fast disappearing,” said Prof McDougall, who is now at the University of NSW.

“It used to be that a research job at CSIRO was seen as a golden opportunity but now CSIRO is ­regarded as an ­employer of last resort.

“It only takes a funding cut of a few per cent to start this downhill process and the cuts to CSIRO by the present Government are of a magnitude that, unless reversed, guarantees this dumbing down of the CSIRO.”